Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Top 5 Coolest Sci-Fi Spaceships from Television

Before we begin, a quick note--almost 7 months ago and over 200 posts ago I started this blog by writing about cartoon cats. There's been no looking back, and it's been you that keeps me and the guest bloggers going. We love your comments and feedback, so please keep it all coming! And thank you for following us on Facebook, spreading the word, and most importantly, for making us a part of your day. Okay, ramble over.

So... Everybody loves spaceships--Star Wars made sure of that. But not all spaceships are created equal. Some are equaler than others, as you're about to see. Note that you'll find no Millennium Falcon here--we're looking at TV shows only. So these are, for different reasons, the coolest spaceships ever to grace the small screen. Yup, it's another nerdy sci-fi top 5, so buckle your seat belts and enjoy (and yeah, I know I just lost, like, half of you).

5: Narn BattleCruiser (Babylon 5) - Babylon 5 is one of the greatest sci-fi shows ever made, and of all the various ships on the show, the coolest looking was this ship, belonging to a race called the Narn. It was one of the most powerful ships of the younger races, and the early CGI the show used, which at times looked stiff and phony, brought this ship to life. Plus, it had a pretty crazy paint job--back on their home planet, some poor Narn's job was painting the fleet like this--hilarious.

4: SDF-1 (Robotech) - My childhood belonged to one ship only--Robotech's Super Dimensional Fortress. Zor's ship. The ship made for giants, containing enough room for the entirety of Macross city to be moved inside and large enough for two aircraft carriers to be tacked on to the sides. It had the ability to transform into something of a robot form (although it was not really mobile like Voltron--it only transformed to use its main gun, an incredibly powerful weapon). The SDF-1 (and its rebuilt versions after nearly being destroyed several times) defeated the Zentraedi armada, disappeared for the second series of the show to find and defeat the Robotech Masters, then returned at the end of the third series of the show to assist in destroying the Invid menace. If none of this makes sense to you, don't worry--the show wasn't as popular as shows it competed against (G.I. Joe and Transformers), so just trust me that this was a cool ship.

3: Serenity (Firefly) - I have a love affair with this little ship. It's lightning bug engine glowed in space, while its twin side thrusters--each individually rotatable 360 degrees--were fired up for planetary landings. It seemed so perfect... Yet like the characters on the show, and even the universe of the show, the ship is flawed. It's an older vessel--a decommissioned class of ship--constantly on the verge of breaking down, with tight spaces and awkward interior designs. But like the characters and the show, it grows on you.

2: Moya (Farscape) - Moya was a massive, living space ship. In the Farscape universe, leviathons--gigantic living creatures with internal atmospheres and features of space ships--and a race known simply as "pilots" bond and become joined for life. The pilot communicates the leviathon's thoughts with the ship's crew, and the crew interacts with both the pilot and the ship. The living ship thing has been done before (Vorlons in Babylon 5; Species 8472 on Star Trek: Voyager), but never as in-depth as it was with Moya, who truly was another character on the show.

1: USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (Star Trek) - Two reasons this makes the list. First, it's cool that they designed a ship that didn't look like a plane--there's no need to be aerodynamic in space! Second, it's the most iconic space ship in history. Others may look cooler, have cooler gadgets (including all of them from later Trek shows), or be bigger or more powerful, but none have had a Space Shuttle named after them!

Okay geeks, let the debating commence--remember, these are TV show ships. So where did I go wrong? Comment below, and as always, like us on Facebook and get your friends to like us too!

Can't really argue the Enterprise, but - for me - this list needs to include...The COLONIAL VIPER from the original "Battlestar Galactica"http://www.happinessismandatory.com/misc/Models/Colonial_Viper/Reference_Pictures/viper3.jpg The TERRAN STARFIGHTER from "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" (oddly enough, concept designer Ralph McQuarrie's original take on the Colonial Viper)http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VPQZB1faNZk/T5wJXvvOUsI/AAAAAAAADKs/6Sb9v6Y6wk4/s1600/buck_rogers_ship.jpg And my personal favorite, the ARGO, from the Japanese animated import "Star Blazers" (aka "Space Battleship Yamato"). An actual battleship retrofitted for intergalactic travel with the epic "Wave Motion Gun" at the bow. http://mysite.verizon.net/~nisk00/yamato/nicpics/yamato.jpg

The original BSG gets a lot of love from folks at the Star Trek BBS too, but more for the Galactica itself than the Viper. I only recently started watching Buck Rogers, but I love the Terran Starfighter. Never saw Star Blazers; guess I need to.